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Test Item File for Excellence in Business Communication, Fourth Canadian Edition
Chapter 16
1) The plural of “son-in-law” is “sons-in-law,” but the possessive is “son-in-law’s.”
A) True
B) False
2) The pronoun “who” is in the nominative case; the pronoun “whom” is in the objective
case.
A) True
B) False
3) The verb “do” is an example of a regular verb.
A) True
B) False
4) The difference between “lie” and “lay” is that “lie” is an intransitive verb and “lay” is a
transitive verb.
A) True
B) False
5) Verbs in ing (present participle) form can be used as adjectives.
A) True
B) False
6) Many adverbs are formed by adding “ly” to adjectives.
A) True
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B) False
7) Some adverbs don’t end in ly at all. An example is the word too.
A) True
B) False
8) Using double negatives gives a strong impression of illiteracy.
A) True
B) False
9) Among is used to refer to two people.
A) True
B) False
10) A comma splice is the use of a comma to separate two independent clauses.
A) True
B) False
11) A semicolon is used to separate independent clauses when the second one begins with
a word such as “however” or “therefore.”
A) True
B) False
12) You need not include a comma when a date consists only of the month and year.
A) True
B) False
13) A period goes inside quotation marks if the whole sentence is quoted but outside the
quotation marks if only the last part of the sentence is a quote.
A) True
B) False
14) If you need to divide the word sincerely at the end of a line, you divide it at the ly.
A) True
B) False
15) A common mistake is to write “alot” instead of “a lot.”
A) True
B) False
16) A writer implies; a reader, in seeing between the lines, infers.
A) True
B) False
17) There are no mispelled words in this sentence.
A) True
B) False
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18) Which of the following is the most gender-neutral (and correct) sentence?
A) A manager must use his best judgment.
B) Each department head must hire her or his own staff.
C) Every shopper will be issued her own personal credit card.
D) Each technician has their own tool kit.
19) Which of the following possessive phrases is not correct?
A) a year’s recommendations
B) two years’ recommendations
C) its recommendations
D) it’s recommendations
20) What is the tense of the verb in this sentence? “We issued the policy Monday
afternoon.”
A) present
B) past
C) future
D) past perfect
21) The past tense of lie and the present tense of lay ___________________
A) look very different.
B) look very different but sound alike.
C) look and sound alike.
D) do not sound alike.
22) Which of the following words is an adjective?
A) too
B) silently
C) poor
D) badly
23) Use the superlative form of an adjective when _________________________
A) comparing two items.
B) modifying a single noun.
C) comparing three or more items.
D) modifying a pronoun.
24) Which of the following is not a complete sentence?
A) The bigger they come, the harder they fall.
B) Put it in the mail right away.
C) Come here.
D) Depending on the circumstances.
25) What is the problem with this sentence? “We can give him a small raise, he deserves
it.”
A) comma splice
B) sentence fragment
C) dangling modifier
D) nothing
26) Which of the following punctuation marks is used to separate a dependent clause at
the beginning of a sentence from the rest of the sentence?
A) semicolon
B) colon
C) comma
D) dash
27) Which of the following terms should not be hyphenated?
A) non-union
B) pro-Liberal
C) self-assured
D) ex-wife
28) In the following sentence, which words should not be capitalized? “After talking with
President Hilda Bruckner, he decided that the Insurance industry would provide a suitable
career for someone who was a Graduate of the Department of Business at Gable
University.”
A) insurance, department
B) president, university
C) graduate, department
D) insurance, graduate
29) The abbreviation for manager is _________________
A) mngr.
B) mgr.
C) man.
D) mng.
30) Which of the following words is misspelled?
A) accommodate
B) exaggerate
C) occurrence
D) receive